How To Take Charge of Your Accounts and Increase Your Quality of Earnings

Quick! Print out a list of all of your accounts. Do it right now.
Did you print it? Probably not. After all, you know your list. You know your clients too, and besides, how could I say or ask anything that would be relevant to your specific list?
The reality is that after all my years in sales and as a sales coach, I don’t need to see your list to know that there is untapped information and potential there. It might be that no one ever showed you how to mine your list. Or, it might be a case of having forgotten how a few simple questions can keep you inspired to reach another level. Either way, there’s a tremendous amount of value in analyzing your list.
As you know, I’m a firm believer in the application of Pareto’s 80/20 principle. That means that if you have a list of 80 clients, 16 of them are in the 20%, providing you with 80% of your revenue. The other 64 clients aren’t.
With your top accounts, what do they have in common with each other? Is it their industry, location, or the way the company is structured? Are they all within a specific aspect of the industry that you have more expertise in? Why do you think they do business with you rather than your competitors?
When it comes to mining your top 16, think about the way their business is built and how they structured themselves. Then brainstorm/research for other businesses, companies, and organizations that mirror their setup. This will provide you with a list of more potential top 20% performers.
Make sure your top accounts really are profitable. There are times when the revenue they provide looks good until you dive into how much time, effort and work it’s costing you to consider them as one of your top 20%.
Don’t forget about your other 64 clients. Take a long look at each one of them to determine their long-term prognosis as being a good match for you and your list. Are there any with the potential of moving up and into your top 20%? If there are, consider how much time it would take to get them there. Are you willing to make the effort? If you aren’t, it doesn’t mean you should get rid of them as a client. It just means you can block the time you spend on their account off your calendar well into the future.
With the lower performing clients, maybe it’s time to consider another alternative for them—like inside sales. Could you hand them over to a new sales rep in your company? Obviously you can keep them, but you will be blocking off your valuable time to work on their accounts well into the future too. On the other hand, if you come up with a way to professionally and ethically let them go, you’ll have more time to pursue new accounts.
There’s always a balance to be struck in sales. We want to believe that our client list is structured with the necessary combination of clients who will help us reach both our sales and monetary goals. But business is always on the move—always changing.

When was the last time you went through your client list to make sure everyone on it is still performing in a way that supports their goals as well as yours?


Alan Luoma: I am a Sales Coach with extensive experience in industrial sales, sales management, new

product development, sales and product training. I work part time with a great national sustainable packaging company and their exceptional distributors to increase sales. My success has been and is in utilizing the Pareto 80/20 principal in business and life. I have become an expert in seeking out and eliminating behaviors that prevent business people from being successful. I am a member of The National Speakers Association and New England Speakers Association. You can view my profile on LinkedIn, or contact me at Luoma@snet.net 

Rip Van Winkle Selling

As the story goes, Rip Van Winkle wanders up to the mountains to get away from both his nagging wife and his responsibilities. He meets a man struggling with a keg and helps him reach his destination where a group of men dressed in antiquated Dutch garb are playing nine-pins. After imbibing in the contents of the keg, Rip lies down to take a nap, his musket and dog both at his side. When he wakes up, it’s to find his musket rusted and rotting, and his dog gone.

He travels back to town, but doesn’t recognize anybody. He finds his house in ruins, learns that his wife has passed away, his dog has been long dead, and no one’s seen or heard from him in 20 years. When he gets into trouble for announcing his allegiance to King George III, he discovers that he slept through the entire American Revolution!

This story reminds me of some of the stories I’ve heard from sales people over the years. They start by shaking their heads and complaining that selling isn't what it used to be. As they continue, their frustration with management starts coming through. I nod my head because I know what they’re going to say. It doesn’t matter which department their complaining about, it still boils down to the same thing—management expecting superior results from antiquated tools. What can you do you?

If the Problem is that marketing is relying too heavily on brand name recognition as their go-to strategy for getting customers and prospects to say yes…

Your Solution may be two-fold. You might not be in a position to get management to change their strategies, but you can still bring great resource—like Hubspot—to their attention. If they’re slow to embrace digital opportunities, don’t let their limits become your limits. Improve your position by figuring out where your tech and web savvy millennial customers are hanging out. Connect with them where they are, and through resources like LinkedIn, and let that be your edge for bringing in new business.

Is the Problem that management is relying on an old CRM, a homegrown CRM, a CRM designed more for accounting than for sales, or worse yet—no CRM at all?

Your Solution could be to provide management with information about the value of updating old systems. Today’s CRMs are more cost effective, and do more than keep track of customers. Remind them that as a sales professional, knowing your company has a reliable CRM in place allows you to speak with more confidence about the products and services your company offers. But again, don’t let their limits become yours. Make sure you have your own CRM in place if they don’t.

Every company has built in challenges. If you’ve chosen to stay, then there must be a good reason why. If you’re comfortable with the thought of snoozing through the next 20 years, don’t do anything. 

If you’d like to be prepared for what comes after the next 20 years, let’s have a conversation.

Alan Luoma is a Sales Coach with extensive experience in industrial sales, sales management, new product development, sales and product training. He works part time with a national sustainable packaging company and their distributors to increase sales. Alan is an expert that speaks on eliminating behaviors that prevent you from being successful in sales and uncovering sales prevention departments that hinder your success. He is a member of the Hartford Springfield Speakers Network, The National Speakers Association and New England Speakers Association. You can view his profile on LinkedIn, or contact him at Luoma@snet.net

Now, Shut Your Mouth To Success

Gossip can be difficult to avoid because it’s all around us. You’d be hard pressed to find a TV show or movie that doesn't have gossip in it. The same goes for books. There are even “news” programs dedicated entirely to gossip.

We’re all guilty too. At one time or another, just about everybody has shared a nice juicy piece of gossip with a coworker—or two. Even if you haven’t been the one doing the talking, you've probably found yourself standing in the break room sharing a good gossipy laugh until the person you’re talking about walks in.

In fact, gossip has become so prevalent that it would be easy to jump to the conclusion that a little gossiping every now and then is perfectly acceptable behavior. Don’t believe it. Gossip can end relationships. In a business setting, gossip can end the business relationship you were counting on for income.

There are definitely times when it’s hard to decide if what someone is saying has crossed the line from being relevant business information over to providing observations or details that are outside the scope of the current situation. You can’t stop people from gossiping. But there are a few rules you can follow so gossip won’t interfere with your ability to build solid and successful business relationships. Here are three:

1.      Don’t say things about other people you wouldn't be willing to say to them directly. This isn't the old adage of only saying good things about other people. In business, sometimes the facts are the facts and they may not always be nice facts. But they are what they are, and sometimes those facts are the difference between securing, keeping, or losing an account. Don’t embellish. Stick with the truth and you won’t have any trouble remembering what you said if you have to repeat it.

2.      Remember that how you speak about your co-workers, business associates, and clients is the way your co-workers, business associates, and clients believe you speak about them in their absence. When you speak well of the people you do business with, you’ll be building business relationships based on trust and respect. That won’t happen if you gossip.

3.      There might be people you’re thinking about doing business with who gossip to you. We all want to be liked, and we definitely want to build our business relationships to increase our income, but don’t give into the gossip game thinking it will help. That’s not to say you shouldn't do business with people who like to gossip. You might find yourself bluffing your way through a few uncomfortable conversations, but stick to your business strengths and ethics.

When you follow simple rules like these, you’ll be putting yourself in a better position to build solid long-term business relationships….  Well, that’s what I heard.

Alan Luoma is a Sales Coach and Speaker with extensive experience in industrial sales, sales management, and sales and product training. He holds key accounts with a national sustainable packaging company, is a motivational speaker, and provides sales training to individuals and groups. He is a member of the Hartford Springfield Speakers Network. You can view his profile on LinkedIn, or contact him at Luoma@snet.net.